Carter And Flandry

(i) Dominic Flandry is a skilled swordsman. John Carter is the greatest swordsman of two worlds.

(ii) Carter travels to Mars, Phobos and Jupiter and becomes Warlord of Mars. Flandry travels to many planets, including Jupiter, and meets the Duke of Mars.

(iii) Flandry becomes an informal advisor to an Emperor. Carter becomes Jeddak of Jeddaks (Emperor of Emperors).

(iv) Carter saves the lives of nearly everyone on Mars. Flandry saves the Terran Fleet, thus preventing the conquest of Earth.

(v) ERB's Martian Series
Vols I-V: John Carter and his son and daughter.
Vols VI-VIII: a second Earthman transported to Mars and two Martian warriors whose stories he transmits to Earth.
Vols IX-XI: a return to Carter as viewpoint character; his granddaughter; journeys to Phobos and Jupiter.

The Dominic Flandry Period
Young Flandry.
A former colleague and the heirs of a former antagonist.
Captain Flandry.
The older Flandry, his son and daughter.

Both series go somewhere and are part of something bigger.

Again On Themed Anthologies

Poul Anderson wrote:

a US Robots story, published in an Asimov-themed anthology (see here);

a Time Patrol story, published in a Knights Templar themed anthology (see here).

Isaac Asimov wrote an installment of his own Black Widowers series, published in a Batman-themed anthology (see here).

SM Stirling edited a Drakas anthology and wrote:

a Lords of Creation story, published in a retro-Mars anthology;

an Angrezi Raj story, published in an alternative histories anthology (see here);

a Time Patrol story, published in an Anderson-themed anthology (see here);

a John Carter story, published in a Barsoom-themed anthology (see here).

Thus, through the medium of themed anthologies, Anderson contributes to Asimov's future history and to his own Time Patrol series whereas Stirling contributes to:

two of his own alternative histories, including his own retro-Mars;
Anderson's Time Patrol series;
ERB's John Carter series, set on ERB's Mars.

Complicated. I am about to read Stirling's John Carter story.

Religious Observance

Which of Poul Anderson's characters:

are Catholics;
convert to Catholicism;
pay lip service to it?

There have been periods when lip service was advisable. Indeed, in my childhood, the response of some adults if their beliefs were questioned was hatred.

In SM Stirling's Emberverse, Tiphaine d'Ath pays lip service to feudal Catholicism whereas Astrid Larsson invokes the deities of Middle Earth although, ironically, Tolkien was a Catholic. Might some Emberversers go further to proclaim themselves Kings and Queens of Narnia, appointed by Aslan? To do this with any sincerity or authenticity, it would be necessary to acknowledge that Aslan is a leonine form of Christ and that Narnianism is an alternative form of Christianity.

A guy I worked with dodged a Catholic woman who wanted to marry him and married someone else. Then, both he and his wife wound up teaching in different Catholic schools and, when they moved house, they were living directly opposite the Catholic section of a cemetry! (I advised him to stop fighting it.)

Another Themed Anthology

I want to post about themed anthologies and find that I have already done so. See here. I am not a fan of this format even though Poul Anderson contributed to such anthologies and there has been an Anderson-themed anthology. However, Under The Moons Of Mars sounds particularly worthwhile with new stories and illustrations by many creators and a glossary by an ERB scholar. Of course, this recent volume lacks a Poul Anderson story but there is one by SM Stirling. My copy is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Reading that may affect posting here.

I would have liked Poul Anderson to contribute to:

John Carter;
Lensman;
Superman;
Draka -

- but also to continue the Time Patrol and the Technic History.

In the first three of these examples, Anderson would have vastly improved on the originals. Take an absurd premise, as Alan Moore did with Marvelman and Swamp Thing, and turn it on its head. Carter and Kal-El have in common that each has traveled to a planet with lower gravity. Kal-El leaps above tall buildings, then flies. Carter leaps above the head of a twelve-foot green Martian and decapitates him. Probably he also moves faster. But there will be other effects that creative writers can think of. I will find out tomorrow.

Mysterious Characters

I have found three more "mysterious characters of literature" (see here):

ERB's John Carter;
Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion;
Donovan's Universal Soldier.

These are characters who can appear in different times and places and might travel through the megamultiverse.

Holger Danske is Poul Anderson's version of such a character. The speculation about such characters was inspired by Anderson's inter-universal inn, the Old Phoenix, and by the 4N dimensions in his Time Patrol universe.

Any warrior in an old heroic fantasy might be an earlier phase of John Carter.

Jesus And John Carter

Science fiction combines imagination with ultimate questions. Therefore, it is appropriate that recently we compared ERB's John Carter with Robert Heinlein's Lazarus Long and Poul Anderson's Hanno and also discussed the significance of Jesus of Nazareth. All of these characters defy death in different ways. Carter died on Earth but lives on Mars and saved the lives of nearly everyone on Mars.

Jesus is, of course, controversial. I categorize him as part historical figure and part "higher fiction," to quote Alan Moore's description of religions. Jesus is relevant here not only because fictional characters include Christians but also because he is the White Christ in Anderson's Norse-based fantasies and plays an active role in CS Lewis' fantasy and sf. He signifies something endless.

Under The Moons Of Mars

I searched the blog for references to Edgar Rice Burrough's (ERB's) Beyond The Farthest Star with interesting results here. (Scroll down.) See also references to John Carter here and to ERBian Martians here. A search for Tarzan yielded results here. (Scroll down.) See in particular "At The Arizona Cave" here. Now I must track down the Barsoom anthology mentioned in the combox here.

At least some of Poul Anderson's diverse series coexist in a multiverse whereas ERB's coexist in a single universe:

the first Venus volume alludes to the Martian series and explicitly mentions the events of Tarzan At The Earth's Core which is both a Tarzan book and an Earth's Core book;

during those events, Jason Gridley communicates with Mars as he had already done with Pellucidar at the Earth's Core;

Beyond The Farthest Star and the Moon Trilogy are sequels to the Martian series;

all these works and The Land That Time Forgot are linked by common reference to the fictional ERB;

a character en route to visit Tarzan time travels in The Eternal Savage.

And we ought to see a green Martian in Anderson's inter-universal inn, the Old Phoenix. See here.

Kinds Of Time

In our period, events are reported in the media and recorded with dated documentation. In earlier periods, events were reported by word of mouth and recorded in an oral tradition that soon made them legendary or even mythical. After SM Stirling's Change, reporting and recording revert from documented to oral.

But is it possible that a further change could then ensure not only that events are recorded in ways that mythologize them but also that the events themselves tend to conform to mythical archetypes such that, e.g., some sons of tribal Chiefs turn out to have all the qualities of a "hero" or that, when such a hero sets out on a Quest for a Sword, he and his companions happen to number exactly Nine?

This is asking us to accept rather a lot but is also quite intriguing as the characters deduce that they are living within and enacting myths and we wonder what has brought this about - apart from the imagination of the author, of course.

A Time Of Legends

Copied from the Religion And Philosophy blog:

(St Paul and the philosophers. Dig it. That is where I would be.)

SM Stirling, The Scourge Of God (New York, 2009), Chapter One.

Catholics and Wiccans find that they are living in a time of legends and do not like it.

"'But even Our Lord was refused when he asked that the cup pass from him.'" (p. 46)

This I do not get. What happened in antiquity?

(i) Pagans sacrificed animals to many gods.
(ii) Jews sacrificed animals to one God.
(iii) Jesus' followers believed that he was the Messiah who would lead them to victory...
(iv) ...but were traumatized by his execution as a criminal - conclusive proof that he was not the Messiah.
(v) Therefore, they reinterpreted scriptures as prophesying that the Messiah must suffer, then rise.
(vi) Paul interpreted the Crucifixion as a perfect sacrifice ending sin, the Law and every other sacrifice.
(vii) Pauline Christianity fitted the Roman Empire which wanted monotheism without divisive dietary laws or repeated animal sacrifices.
(viii) But do we now believe in the efficacy of sacrifice?

I do not understand how this belief can make sense now. Of course, if someone believes that the Resurrection happened, then they have to believe that the Crucifixion also happened and has some significance but what? I do not buy:

all have sinned;
therefore, all have deserved to suffer and die;
but Jesus took it all on himself;
but, being perfect, could not stay dead;
etc.

CS Lewis' soft sf assumes the truth of Christianity. Poul Anderson's and SM Stirling's Christian characters discuss their beliefs. Christianity remains widespread in the real world. So it merits discussion.

Hanno, Lazarus Long And John Carter

Copied from the Science Fiction blog:

Poul Anderson's Hanno is the oldest mutant immortal.

Robert Heinlein's Lazarus Long, the Senior, or oldest member of the human race, is a third generation Howard, bred for longevity, but also, coincidentally and inexplicably, a mutant who lives much longer than any other member of the Howard Families.

Edgar Rice Burrough's (ERB's) John Carter claims to remember only an extended adulthood without any childhood and to know nothing of his own origin even though he has a great-grand-nephew and must surely therefore also know his brother or sister and their parents? (ERB wrote glaring inconsistencies.) Carter died on Earth but was astrally projected to Mars where he still lives in a tangible undying body and speculated just once that maybe he is the materialization of a long dead warrior. Mysteries beyond mysteries. (SM Stirling, in his Martian novel, alludes to the cave near which Carter was astrally projected.)

Might Hanno and Long become like what Carter claims to be? Let me explain. Most people have lived for less than 100 years. Whatever age you have now reached, how much do you remember of your first two years? If you were to live for 1000 years, how much would you remember of your first 20 years? If you were to live for 1,000,000 years, how much would you remember of of your first 20,000 years? And so on. Hanno and his fellow immortals agree to meet again in another million years and expect to continue living after that.

Could there be an sf series as outlined below?

Vol I, set in One Billion AD: a man who seems to have lived forever remembers only the last ten millennia.

Vol II, set in Two Billion AD: a man who seems to have lived forever is by now known by a different name, has learned so much from experience that he has completely changed his personality and remembers only the last ten millennia.

Vol III, set in Three Billion AD...